The parade was interspersed with the artistic programme, which was divided into twelve acts reflecting the culture of France and its history, and took place at Paris landmarks such as Notre-Dame, Conciergerie, Musée d'Orsay, and the Eiffel Tower.

[10] However, after a suggestion in May 2023 by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the French Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, that this be limited to between 300,000 and 400,000 free of charge, and after additional concerns of security and logistics, the figures was reduced to a maximum of 300,000 in November 2023.

[14] In early 2022, the city government announced that due to security concerns, the riverside book stalls could be removed, leading to legal disputes until 13 February 2024, when the French President Emmanuel Macron shelved the plan.

[23] The free tickets were distributed in three rounds and aimed at families with low incomes living in underprivileged areas, sports movements, schools, volunteers and local workers including traders.

Other plans that did not go through included a performance that would take place near a fish hatchery by the Béthune Quay on the bank of the Seine, which was not to be disturbed, a mass of dancers on a bridge that would have caused its collapse, and an undisclosed scene that had been reworked 73 times by May 2024.

[32] Nevertheless, Christophe Dubi, the IOC Games executive director, stated the previous in March that a change to the Stade de France would be unlikely due to the event being "too big, too sophisticated, too complex artistically to look at a Plan B in another location".

He is approached by footballer Zinedine Zidane, who takes the torch through the city streets, leaping through a traffic jam, disrupting people at a cafe and attracting the attention of a trio of children representing the three times Paris has hosted the Games.

The segment (pre-recorded for "safety reasons")[51] alluded to "a cabaret feel" with a performance of "Mon truc en plumes", made famous by vedette Zizi Jeanmaire, on a golden staircase beside a black grand piano below Square Barye [fr] at the southeast point of Île Saint-Louis.

[53] Recalling Piaf's song "La Vie en rose", the parade resumed with the Bangladeshi through Chinese delegations passing by the Quai de Bethune decorated with large old postcards of Parisian monuments from the Belle Époque era printed in pink and populated with a crowd of characters dressed in pink waving at them, including big head versions of famous French historical figures and characters and the Olympic Phryge in its only appearance at the ceremony.

Dancers from the Moulin Rouge, also dressed in pink, then danced at the Quai d'Orleans, to the music of the French can-can "Galop infernal" from Jacques Offenbach's opera Orpheus in the Underworld.

The second sequence, Synchronicité (synchronicity), started with a dance tribute by 420 people to the reconstruction teams of Notre-Dame repairing the cathedral following its 2019 fire and to artisans in general, held on Île de la Cité.

This sequence featured French-Senegalese dancer Guillaume Diop on the rooftop of the Hôtel de Ville and Olympic champions Martin Fourcade of France and Michael Phelps of the United States.

Soprano Marina Viotti [fr] joined Gojira in the latter half of the song, before performing a rendition of the Habanera from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, all done while "sailing" along the Quai de l'Horloge on a float in the shape of the boat present on the coat of arms of Paris.

The Republican Guard marching band played the introduction of "For me formidable" [fr] by Charles Aznavour on the Pont des Arts footbridge, opening the fourth sequence, Égalité (equality).

The fifth sequence, Fraternité (fraternity/brotherhood), began with Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse macabre" and the masked torchbearer at the Louvre seeing characters from the paintings and statues emerging and coming to life, reminiscent of the Night at the Museum films, and finding Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa absent, stolen from its protective chamber (a reference to its theft in 1911).

After that, the International Space Station (in whose program the European Space Agency is a participant) appears, revealing a yellow periscope which pans down to an animated underwater sequence by Illumination Studios Paris featuring the Minions from Illumination's Despicable Me franchise, holding various sports events from the Olympics in a submarine reminiscent of Jules Verne's Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, as well as revealing themselves to be the ones responsible for stealing the Mona Lisa earlier, which emerged from the Seine after their usual mayhem causes the sub to explode.

Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński dressed as a Pierrot who sang Viens Hymen from Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera Les Indes galantes, becoming the first artist from Poland to perform at an Olympic Games opening ceremony.

A tribute to the European Union was introduced by "The Final Countdown" by Swedish band Europe and a projection show of the 12 stars of the EU flag revolving around the Eiffel Tower, and featured drag queens including Nicky Doll and dancers including Germain Louvet, Electro Street, and the Mazelfreten collective, continuing on the waterlogged red carpet of the Debilly footbridge, as well as a barge with an LED dancefloor, to Eurodance tracks (see below), and Philippe Katerine seen nearly nude and painted as a blue Dionysus (the Greek god of wine, in tribute to France's wine industry and the ancient Greek Olympics),[55][56] performed "Nu [fr]", lying at the center of a long table, with the drag queens posed in a sort of Bacchanalian feast.

Some commentators in the news media noted the pose as a possible allusion to the Jan van Bijlert painting Le Festin des Dieux, and to the relationship between Dionysus and his daughter Sequana, the goddess of the Seine,[57][58][59] while others interpreted it as depicting a reimagining of The Last Supper by da Vinci.

The tenth sequence, Solidarité (solidarity), showcased a hooded knight-resembling horsewoman, representing both the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc, and the goddess of the river Seine, Sequana, as well as serving as the secondary main character of the opening ceremony.

President Emmanuel Macron then declared the Games open, stating: "Je proclame ouverts les Jeux de Paris célébrant la XXXIIIe Olympiade des temps modernes."

The band, who were joined by opera singer Marina Viotti, performed the French Revolution-era song "Ça Ira" at the Conciergerie, a former prison where Marie Antoinette spent her final days.

[83] Closing the opening ceremony after the Olympic flame was lit, Canadian singer Céline Dion sang the Édith Piaf song "Hymne à l'amour" on the first level of the Eiffel Tower.

[188] The conservative Le Figaro described it as "a grandiose and sumptuous spectacle", but demonstrating that France "[can't] help drawing from its revolutionary guts the spirit of provocation and discord that has always fueled its paradoxes and divisions".

[190] Writing for Time, Judy Berman felt that the ceremony was "occasionally weird, wildly ambitious, ultimately wonderful, and extremely French", and remarked that "the most enjoyable moments tended to be the strangest—and the most idiosyncratically French—ones.

Marie Antoinette holding her freshly severed, singing head, as the introduction to a set piece that would pair opera singer Marina Viotti with French metal stalwarts Gojira?

Water cannons, street dancers in Louis XIV outfits, and ultra-camp fashion shows which seemed like a crime against haute couture: it would not have looked out of place at Cannes' gaudy la Croisette."

A statement from Paris 2024 said that it was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's fresco The Last Supper (housed in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, one of the host cities of the 2026 Winter Olympics), which depicts Jesus and the Twelve Apostles.

[226] The Liberté section included a portrayal of Marie Antoinette, in which the queen was shown holding her own severed head in reference to her execution by guillotine in 1793 during the French Revolution; the sequence was also held in the Conciergerie, where she was imprisoned, tried and sentenced.

[237][238] Thomas Jolly, the director of the ceremony, stated that there was no "glorification of this instrument of death that was the guillotine" and that "If we use our work to regenerate [...] division, hatred [...] and it continues to progress, when I believe we have made some peace [...], then that would be great pity.